Swallowing Diamonds Could Find What's Ailing You

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Scientists from Taiwan have developed nanodiamonds that, when
swallowed, harmlessly coat the digestive track. When coated with
special sugars or proteins, the nanodiamonds are absorbed into
the body and attach themselves to specific cells.

The research, which is currently limited to animals, could
eventually diagnose and eventually treat diseases in humans.

"This research work demonstrates that nanodiamonds are non-toxic
in both cellular and organismic levels," said Yi-Chun Wu, a
scientist who, along with Huan-Cheng Chang and their colleagues
in Taiwan, co-authored a new study in the journal ACS Nano
Letters.

Nanodiamonds are tiny pieces of pure carbon only a few of
nanometers across. (One nanometer is about 100,000 times smaller
than a human hair.) Most nanodiamonds are formed by blowing up
TNT or other explosives to create high temperate and high
pressures that bond carbon atoms together in a classic 3D diamond
nanostructure.

These nanodiamonds are not solid, however. Inside those tiny
structures are tiny holes, called vacancies, where a nitrogen
atom from the air has replaced two carbon atoms. Nitrogen
vacancies in diamonds are common. Natural diamonds with lots of
nitrogen have a yellow tint to them. The nanodiamonds the
scientists from Taiwan used absorb yellow light and emit violet
light.

Next, the scientists fed two types of nanodiamonds to the round
worm C. elegans. The first batch of nanodiamonds were
uncoated, just pure carbon with a few nitrogen atoms. Those
nanodiamonds coated the digestive tract of the transparent
roundworm.

The second batch of nanodiaonds the roundworms ate were coated
with a special sugar. Once inside the roundworm, the nanodiamonds
passed through the digestive tract and into the body of the worm,
congregating at various points inside the body.

Both the coated and uncoated nanodiamonds glowed purple when
yellow light was shined onto the roundworms, revealing their
location inside the worm. All the bejeweled worms had normal
lifespans, and none of them showed any sign of distress, said the
scientists.

The scientists fed the nanodiamonds to the worms just to measure
their toxicity and to see where the diamonds ended up. More
specific functions will come soon though, said Vadym Mochalin, a
scientist at Drexel University who uses nanodiamonds in his own
research.

Virtually any kind of protein or chemical can coat nanodiamonds.
When placed into the body, those coated nanodiamonds could seek
out and attach themselves to cancer cells, immune cells,
pathogens and other cells.

At first, coated and glowing nanodiamonds will likely help
doctors and scientists find and map cancers and other things that
harm humans. After that nanodiamonds will likely be used to
deliver low doses of powerful drugs to help treat those diseases.

Some researchers are most excited about using nanodiamonds to
track stem cells.

"One of the most exciting applications of [fluorescent
nanodiamonds] in humans is the long-term imaging, tracking, and
sorting of human stem cells," said Chang.

Those stem cells could jump-start immune responses, help repair
nerve damage, and potentially even regenerate entire organs if
the research pans out. Those kinds of advanced therapies are
still years, if not decades away however, caution scientists. But
this research, along with dozens of other papers and groups
working with nanodiamonds, opens the door for powerful therapies
in the future.

"The nanodiamond looks very promising compared with other
carbon-based nanoparticles," said Mochalin. "It's the least toxic
carbon-based nanomaterial to date."